TWO MEN being sued over the Omagh bomb atrocity have launched a legal bid to gain access to a report commissioned by victims’ relatives which is said to contain fresh evidence.
Details of the move emerged as the civil retrial of Colm Murphy and Séamus Daly was put back for at least a month due to the ill-health of a defence barrister.
The case, which is expected to last for six weeks, was due to get under way at the High Court in Belfast today.
Mr Murphy, a Dundalk-based builder and publican, and Mr Daly, from Cullaville, Co Monaghan, are defending an action brought by relatives of some of the 29 people, including a woman pregnant with twins, killed in the 1998 Real IRA bombing. They were ordered to face a retrial after their appeals against being held liable for the bombing were upheld.
Two other men found responsible in the initial landmark ruling, convicted Real IRA leader Michael McKevitt and fellow dissident republican Liam Campbell, failed to have the findings against them overturned.
But Mr Justice Gillen, who will hear the action, agreed to an adjournment after being informed of the barrister’s condition. He is to review the case again in four weeks’ time.
Meanwhile, lawyers for Mr Murphy and Mr Daly are to seek disclosure of a report commissioned by the Omagh Self-Help and Support Group. The dossier was produced by a London legal consultancy firm as part of attempts to secure a public inquiry. It has examined all the inquiries and investigations to date on both sides of the Border.
Although the report’s findings have not been made public, the Omagh families say it contains evidence that British and Irish authorities could have prevented the bombing. It was presented to former Northern Ireland secretary of state Owen Paterson in June.
Mr Murphy and Mr Daly’s legal representatives want access to the contents as part of their defence of the civil action. But Michael Gallagher, spokesman for the Omagh Self-Help and Support Group, said it should not be disclosed to them.
Mr Gallagher, whose son Aiden was killed in the bombing, said: “This report took over a year to complete and we are using it for a particular purpose and we are going to lose control of it.
“Up to this point in time only five senior individuals in government have had access to it. It’s not a report that at this time should be in the public domain.”
No one has been successfully criminally convicted of the bombing, which devastated the Co Tyrone market town.